Topic: About to give up, can any of you experienced users help ?

[Daryll Griffiths]

Hi,

Knowing nothing of Linux, I've tried in vain to setup esmith the way i need it for my network using posts from these forums as help and not got any where far !!!

My setup the way i need it is the following :
 
                                            Cable Modem
                                                     ¦
                                                     ¦
                                             E-Smith Server
                                               ¦               ¦
                                               ¦               ¦
                                             --               --
                                             ¦                    ¦
                                          COMP1        COMP2

Now for this to work I need 3 nics in the server. The nic registered with my internet connection is a 3com 509 ( ISA driver = 3c509 ). The other 2 nics which will be Intel pro ( driver=eepro100 ) and a netgear one ( driver = tulip ).

Now for the ISA card to work I setup the e-smith config for EthernetDriver2=3c509 and in /etc/modules.conf I added

alias eth1 3c509
options 3c509 io=0x300 irq=5

Now this setup sort of works. By this I mean when you start up the server the internet doesn't work. Firstly you have to issue "insmod 3c509" via root and then restart the network "/etc/rc.d/init.d/network restart". For troubleshooting purposes if you restart the network before issueing insmod you get "bringing up interface eth1, "delaying eth1 initizilation" FAILED". So thats problem #1 that needs to be sorted.

#2 is a lot more complicated from my point of view due to my lack of knowledge of linux etc.

I need the netgear card ( driver=tulip , we'll call it eth2 as previous instructions have ) to do ,as eth0 does for comp1, for comp2. So it needs to be setup as a second card which will also issue an ip via dhcp. This is something i dont know how to do. I've seen so many ways of doing it and none have worked so far for me. I'm using 5.0 if this is of importance to anyone.

If anyone could provide detailed instructions on how this could be done, i would be extremely grateful. At this moment in time I'm thinking of dumping e-smith and going elsewhere ( possibly win2k with net connect share etc ), but e-smith really is great and it has a great community behind it so thats why I'm hoping I can stick with it with your help !

Thanks,

Daryll

PS.. Please be as detailed as possible as far as commands go etc as i really dont know much.

[Dan Brown]

It doesn't really answer your question, and you've probably heard it before, but hubs are cheap.  Really cheap.  Like $20 or less for what you'd need.  And that's what you really need here, unless the NICs also have coax connectors, in which case you could wire your LAN that way.  That's not to say that it can't be done the way you're trying to, only that you're making it a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

[Daryll Griffiths]

Dan Brown wrote:
>
> It doesn't really answer your question, and you've probably
> heard it before, but hubs are cheap.  Really cheap.  Like $20
> or less for what you'd need.  And that's what you really need
> here, unless the NICs also have coax connectors, in which
> case you could wire your LAN that way.  That's not to say
> that it can't be done the way you're trying to, only that
> you're making it a lot more difficult than it needs to be.

The thing is I'm a poor student ( poor me ) who lives in the land of expensive goods, yes the UK. A hub would cost me about £40. I would then have to buy 3 new network cables as the current ones I've got ( brand new and just cost me £20 ) are all crossover, so that adds another £20, bringing the grand total to £60, if you do a little change over to $ you can see why I'm trying to do what I'm doing. The system for the e-smith server cost me £60 so I have no plans to pay anymore out !

[Graeme Robinson]

Time to hit the dumpsters!  Big corporations
throw away stuff like this everyday of the week.  Try searching
for computer users groups - I am sure someone will take pity on
you and at least lend you a hub and a couple of network cables.
This is definitely the solution to your problem - trying to
subnet two networks is definitely non-trivial.

[John Helms]

It took me a moment to understand what you are trying to do. As I understand it you can't afford to purchase a hub and the cost of adding a couple more cables would also hurt your pocketbook so instead you are trying to use 3 net cards in your server to tie 2 clients thru it. One poster suggested hitting the dumpsters. In the US this is usually an easy way to find things like hubs although it usually won't be in dumpsters. Most of the businesses I currently work with have upgraded their old 10baseT hubs to 100baseT or the newer switches and usually have somewhere in a storage room their old retired 10baseT hubs. A 10baseT hub is more than fast enough to provide connectivity for your 2 machines thru the E-Smith box. Check around with various businesses in your area explaining that your income level and student status won't let you purchase new items. As to your cables I would do a little digging among your friends and contacts who are into computers for someone who has a crimper and is familiar with ethernet cables. Turning a Xover cable to a standard cable is just a matter of cutting off one end and crimping a new one on with the correct pin settings.
Good luck with your E-Smith project.

[Karl W. Müller]

>
>
> My setup the way i need it is the following :
>
>                                             Cable Modem
>                                                      ¦
>                                                      ¦
>                                              E-Smith Server
>                                                ¦               ¦
>                                                ¦               ¦
>                                              --               --
>                                              ¦                    ¦
>                                           COMP1        COMP2
>

Well, lets divide your problem #1 in three parts

1. The gateway funktion

A gateway handles packages between two different network circuits, so you
should place eth1 (e.g. the netgear nic) and the cable-modem in the
192.168.10.0 network. (e.g. Cablemodem = 192.168.10.1, eth1 in e-smith =
192.168.10.2)
Your normal network should have the 192.168.0.0 (e.g. eth0 in e-smith =
192.168.0.1, computer1 = 192.168.0.10, computer2 = 192.168.0.11)
Setup the e-smith as server and gateway with permanent
internet-connection. - Now the gateway will handle all the packages between
the 192.168.0.0 and the 192.168.10.0 networks

2 The hardware part:

If you cànt efford a 4 port hub and 3 - 4 patch-cables, there are only
bnc-devices for you. So no discussion about the pros and cons. Your NICs
should be simple bnc devices or combo-cards (bnc + rj45) You should check
the interrupts and irqs and write them down (check-programms are on the
supplement-disks delivered with the NICs or can be found easily in the
internet) If you have a combo-card, be shure to activate the bnc-port)

> #2 is a lot more complicated from my point of view due to my lack of
> knowledge of linux etc.


> I need the netgear card ( driver=tulip , we'll call it eth2 as previous
> instructions have ) to do ,as eth0 does for comp1, for comp2. So it needs
to
> be setup as a second card which will also issue an ip via dhcp.

You normally count the NICs for every computer, so the first NIC in the e-smith is eth0 and the second is eth1.
In the above mentioned 192.168.10.0 network you will have your internet-providers dhcp-server, so you will get an ip-adress for every internet-access (normally)
DHCP means, that the so called dhcp-server listens for dhcp-request from the clients, when the boot and gives every-one a different ip-adress for the session or longer.(depends on the dhcp-server configuration)
In your local network you can decide wether you need dhcp or not. (for two computers I wouldnt use it, except one of them is a notebook, which logs into different networks)

So forget about dhcp in your local network, you dont need it there.

Contact me under carlo.tux@gmx.de for further questions and try to read the manual before, there are different solutions to connect the e-smith to the internet, one is for cable-modems and there should be a chapter for the
configuration of windows-workstations.

Maybe your problems come from  poor knowledges of the tcp-ip protocoll and have nothing to do with linux or the e-smith server.

With regards

Karl-W. Müller